Telecom and TiVo

The Herald has some details of the deal:

• TiVo is launching in early November.
• Telecom will take an unspecified share of the $899 cost for a set top box and offer its customers free broadband for downloads of movies and unspecified free advertising-funded content.
• It will take no share of TiVo’s income from pay per view movies so income will dry up while it has an ongoing cost for free broadband for TiVo content.
• Telecom says it owes consumers more details of the TiVo offer before they pay $899 for a set top box.
• It would not disfranchise customers, though would not rule out changes.

I think this is a very smart move by Telecom. While I am a very happy MySky customer, I understand TiVo is even more advanced in terms of functionality. And the ability to legally download movies on demand is the future.